Penny Williamsburg

Set in Brooklyn, The Penny Williamsburg is a boutique hotel for a city break where the hotel matters almost as much as the address. You are close enough to spend the day exploring New York, then come back to a place with its own restaurant, bar and rooftop rather than treating the room as little more than luggage storage.

The hotel has 118 rooms and suits several kinds of traveller, from solo visitors to couples, families and groups looking for more than one bedroom. It is also pet-friendly, with lift access to the upper floors and accessible facilities including an accessible restaurant.

The website is available in English, which is useful when you are planning the practical details of a stay. The rest of the hotel’s character is refreshingly straightforward: a central Brooklyn base, somewhere to eat and drink, and rooms equipped for a few nights in the city.

The address is 288 North 8th Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York. The hotel sits around 3 km from New York city centre, placing you in the borough rather than in the middle of Manhattan’s usual hotel corridor.

Metropolitan Avenue, the City Reliquary Museum and The Brick Theater are among the nearby places to explore. This is an urban stay, with the neighbourhood doing much of the work once you step outside: streets to wander, city sights to reach and plenty of reasons not to spend the whole day indoors.

Parking is available nearby, but it is public and paid. If you are arriving by car, that is the sort of detail worth sorting before the luggage comes out of the boot.

The choice runs from single rooms and double rooms to family accommodation, multi-bedroom suites, apartments, villas and cottages. For a couple, a double room keeps things simple; for a family or a group, the one-, two- and three-bedroom layouts give you a more workable way to share a city address without turning every evening into a negotiation over floor space.

Private bathrooms are available across the listed categories. Some of the more fully equipped rooms add air conditioning, heating, blackout blinds, soundproofing, a desk, Wi-Fi, television, a safe, wardrobe, hairdryer and tea- and coffee-making facilities. Selected rooms also include a kitchen, microwave and fridge, useful when you want something cold or quick rather than another full restaurant stop. A minibar is also part of the room set-up, while the hotel describes its in-room service as a digital minibar.

The practical touches matter in New York. Blackout blinds can help when the city has not yet decided that the night is over, while soundproofing is available in selected categories. Some double rooms have a double bed, others have twin beds, and balcony, city-view, river-view, pool-view and ocean-view categories appear among the room choices. The sensible move is to choose by layout and the facilities attached to that category, not by the grander adjective on the door.

The hotel has a restaurant and a bar, with elNico providing the main dining address. It is a rooftop restaurant serving Mexican food across breakfast, lunch and dinner, so the day can start with food upstairs and finish with a plate and a view rather than another trek across Brooklyn.

The kitchen focuses on creative Mexican flavours, while the drinks list includes handcrafted cocktails. Add skyline views and you have a clear reason to stay in for the evening, particularly when your feet have already had enough of Manhattan and Williamsburg.

Breakfast is available, although whether it is included depends on the room arrangement selected. Tea and coffee facilities are available in the hotel, and the rooms include a digital minibar for the quieter sort of late-night refreshment.

This is a city hotel rather than a resort built around a pool or spa. The useful leisure option on site is cycling, which fits Brooklyn rather better than pretending every afternoon needs a scheduled activity. You can also use the hotel as a base for exploring the local streets, museums and theatres around Williamsburg.

For a more structured workout, guests can buy discounted day passes for the nearby Chalk Gym. That keeps the arrangement practical: a proper gym session when you want one, without a fitness club taking over the hotel for everyone else.

The concierge and excursion assistance can help shape time away from the hotel. In other words, there is enough support to organise the city, but no forced programme waiting for you in the lobby.

Check-in runs from 15:00 until 03:00, and check-out is at 11:00. The reception is open around the clock, with express check-in and check-out available, which is handy for late arrivals or an early departure. Wi-Fi is free throughout the property.

A security deposit is required during the stay. Public parking is available nearby and is paid separately, so driving here calls for a little advance planning rather than an optimistic search for a spare kerbside space. Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Diners Club are accepted.

The hotel offers luggage storage, a safe, concierge services, laundry, dry cleaning and ironing. Pets are welcome. The building has a lift, wheelchair-accessible facilities and an accessible restaurant, while the hotel is non-smoking.

For visitors from outside the United States, the electrical supply is 120 volts at 60 Hz, using Type A and Type B sockets. Bring the appropriate adaptor; it is a small item that becomes surprisingly important once the phone, watch and camera all need charging at once.